engleski

Differences in manifestation of schizophrenia in males and females (case report)

Schizophrenia is the most difficultly manageable psychiatric disease. It is characterized by variable clinical manifestation. In schizophrenia, male and female patients exhibit different symptoms. Usually, schizophrenic men become more passive, apathetic, and socially withdrawn, while women become more impulsive, outgoing, and domineering. The aim of our case report was to asses differences in manifestation of schizophrenia between male and female patient, specially in terms of assessment of clinical manifestation of schizophrenia after post-menopausal changes, compared to male patients, among which hormonal changes may not influence the disease as intensively as in females. We compared the patient history, hereditary factors, family background and clinical manifestation of male and female patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized at Clinical Department of Psychiatry at University Hospital Centre Osijek in period between 1998 and 2010. The first schizophrenic episode was at a slightly younger age in male than in female patients. We also observed that negative symptoms are predominantly associated with male patients, whilst the female patients mostly suffered the positive symptoms. Later during the course of the disease, the male patient were more likely to start abusing the alcohol, which is frequently followed by significant cognitive decline. This was usually not the case in female patients. However, intensified cognitive decline in female patients occurred after the onset of menopause. We conclude that our patients exhibit characteristic sex differences in manifestation of schizophrenia. Although those differences are already reported in many publications, we would like to draw attention to our observation that significant exacerbation in female patients occurs after hormonal changes that accompany the onset of menopause.

schizophrenia; sex differences

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